Groundbreaking for new
Interdisciplinary Academic Building

Vice President for Business and Finance Robert Whitaker, left, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Teresa Thompson, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences Barry Joyner, Ph.D., University President Jaimie Hebert, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jean Bartels, Ph.D., R.N., Executive Vice President of the Student Government Association Valencia Warren and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Curtis Ricker, Ph.D., break ground on the new Interdisciplinary Academic Building at Georgia Southern.

Georgia Southern University is making way for a new Interdisciplinary Academic Building, for which University officials broke ground during a ceremony in February.

University President Jaimie Hebert emphasized the addition of this new building not only signifies physical growth for the University, but more importantly serves as a means to further student success, and provides a home for Georgia Southern’s teacher scholars, faculty who are active in cutting-edge research but also committed to serving their students in the classroom. Read full story.

Knight Wins CHHS Alumni of the Year Award

Shake It Up

Pictured left to right: La'Darius Madison and Michala Howard

Graduate students Michala Howard and La’Darius Madison, in the School of Health and Kinesiology’s Dietetic Internship (DI), had the opportunity to take part in a statewide initiative to change the entire culture of school nutrition last fall.

The Georgia Department of Education school nutrition team, in partnership with the State School Superintendent and State Board of Education, launched the initiative based on three areas: tasty meals, friendly cafeterias and happy schools.

Howard and Madison worked alongside Wayne County School Nutrition Director Rindy Trapnell and School Nutrition Coordinator Samantha Thornton to implement a flavor station, “Shake It Up,” at Martha Puckett Middle School in Jesup, Georgia, where students could add salt-free seasoning and herbs to their food without increasing their sodium intake.

Howard and Madison implemented a taste test using cauliflower popcorn as a way to promote the flavor station. Students were allowed to try out the seasoning that would be available on the upcoming station.

“The students were so pleased to learn the health benefits of their new food,” said Madison. “Many of them hadn’t tasted cauliflower before, so I was shocked to see how many of them wanted seconds! It was great to see so many students take an interest in making healthier choices.”

Howard and Madison described their time working in the Wayne County district as just one of the many exciting opportunities afforded to them as dietetic interns.

The University’s DI is a full-time, 12-month, post-baccalaureate graduate certificate non-degree dietetic internship program with concentrations in community nutrition and school nutrition. Students enrolled in the internship are required to complete 30 weeks of supervised practice experience. It has been granted candidate status by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition & Dietetics of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics.

Gregg Serves Pivotal Role with GAYC

Katy Gregg, Ph.D., associate professor of child and family development in the School of Human Ecology, has been named president-elect for the Georgia Association on Young Children (GAYC).

“It is an honor to represent GAYC in this capacity,” said Gregg.

Gregg has been a member of the GAYC board since 2014 and was nominated and voted on by GAYC members for her role as president-elect. During the election process, Gregg presented her ideas to the membership at the GAYC Annual Members meeting in September.

As president-elect, Gregg will lead the board and executive committee in fulfilling their strategic plan and adhering to GAYC’s mission. She will serve as a representative on state boards related to early childhood professions and meet with the state Department of Early Care and Learning three times a year. Additionally, Gregg will meet with the board four times a year and separately with the executive committee four times a year. Gregg will serve one year as president-elect, two years as the president and one year as past president.

The GAYC supports the education and development of children in Georgia. The group encourages and supports healthy child development by collaborating with others to increase public awareness and improve programs for children.

Throughout her term, Gregg’s goals are “to spread the messages of GAYC to a wider audience so all early childhood professionals in Georgia are familiar with GAYC’s work and want to join the organization, to ensure the board listens to the needs of the current membership to provide them with the best professional development opportunities and to grow GAYC’s communication with the membership and use GAYC as an amplifier to update Georgia’s hardest working professionals on the current trends in early childhood.”

Hoops with Heroes

Senior exercise science majors and members of Georgia Southern’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, Dominique Bullock and Patrice Butler, respectively, co-directed the inaugural ‘Hoops with Heroes’ event on Feb. 18 at William James Middle School under the supervision of Charles “Hal” Wilson Jr., Ph.D., assistant professor of coaching education in the School of Health and Kinesiology.

Approximately 17 local children spent their morning at the event which is aimed at bringing together middle school students and local law enforcement from the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Southern Police Department and Georgia State Patrol Post #45, by using basketball as a bridge to build positive relationships and improve communication from an early age.

Prior to the event, research was conducted on positive youth development and sport for peace and development. The group identified the core values they wanted to teach and created a daily schedule that integrated these values with basketball.

“The activities were designed for the kids to learn about character, awareness and perseverance, which was put into an acronym: ‘C.A.P.,’” said Butler. “We wanted the activities to be both competitive and fun.”

There were a total of six different activities offered. Three were geared toward basketball, and three were non-basketball related. Participants took part in simple drills, such as passing and dribbling, and competed in a human hula hoop contest, marshmallow toss and blindfolded listening activity.

The event would not have been possible without the Georgia Southern student volunteers and athletes, including the Zeta Delta Delta chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, the Georgia Southern chapter of the National Council of Negro Women and the Georgia Southern football team. Both Mike Yawn, principal at William James Middle School, and Brian Hall, coach of the William James Middle School boys’ basketball team, were instrumental in recruiting participants and securing the facility for the event.

Georgia Southern Athletics provided all child participants with free tickets to both the men’s and women’s basketball games that were played the weekend of the ‘Hoops with Heroes’ event. Local restaurant, 40 East Grill, donated a catered lunch for the event allowing participants the opportunity to socialize afterwards.

“Bullock and Butler did an all-around fantastic job,” stated Wilson. “The feedback from the kids, the officers and the volunteers was wonderful, and several officers have already asked when the event will be held again.”

Faculty Serves as Visiting Professor at
Australian University

Kathryn Anderson, Ph.D., ARNP, PMHCNS-BC, LMFT, professor in the School of Nursing, was appointed visiting professor at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 10.

During this time, Anderson provided consultation to ECU faculty and led lectures on how faculty can help facilitate ECU’s goal of implementing curriculum on family care into their undergraduate to doctoral education programs. She also helped faculty become more comfortable having a family nursing, or care of families, focus in their curriculum.

“I participated in numerous individual research consultations with faculty, participated in a manuscript writing retreat and lead a ‘Next Steps in Research’ session,” Anderson said. “I was able to collaborate with other faculty and begin discussions to link common research projects between ECU faculty and Georgia Southern faculty. We have begun working together to develop an interdisciplinary proposal for a multi-site international project focused on providing family-centered care when dealing with chronic illness.”

Anderson was chosen by ECU’s director of research based on her longstanding work in implementing family nursing and research work in families with chronic illness.

In addition, Anderson provided several one- to two-hour research-focused presentations to include how to work with and analyze family data sets, designing intervention studies with families, addressing concerns of families dealing with chronic illness, and involving undergraduate students in international research.

She provided guest lectureships and programming planning workshops at the local hospital, Joondalup Hospital, to advanced practice nurses, nurses and other health professionals and staff at newly emerging primary care agencies.

“Both settings focused on including families in patient care, providing family-focused health care, educational needs of staff and how to transform agencies/units/nurses to adopt a family focus in care,” said Anderson.

Alumnus Named Manager of the Year

On March 10, alumnus, Jeff Herrington (’89) was awarded the 2016 Outstanding Manager of the Year for the State of Georgia at the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association Awards Banquet in Atlanta, GA. The Manager of the Year Award is awarded annually by the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association to recognize supervisory employees who have demonstrated exceptional performance to their subordinates, to guests and to the community.

Herrington graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in resort and commercial recreation. He has served over 25 years in the hospitality field and is currently serving as the Residence Manager of Team Member Housing with Sea Island. As a residence manager, Herrington is tasked with managing all aspects of Sea Island’s 100-room team member temporary housing facility.

Alumni in the News